Tag Archives: romance

Corejo’s “Only, Only, Only You”

12 Friday Aug 2016

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Take a poetic excursion through the mind of Nightmare Moon with today’s story.

only-only-only-youOnly, Only, Only You
[Romance] [Sad] • 1,594 words

Come closer here—my heart, my host.
Come closer.  Hear my heart, my host,

Is only staid with presence close.
If love’s a potion, ample dose.

My night-ful bride, I need your boon.
My baleful bride, I need you soon:

For what’s eclipsed by half a moon?

FROM THE CURATORS: If it seems like we disproportionately feature poetry relative to how rare it is in the fandom, it’s only because we keep stumbling across poems that are really, really good.  This was laudable not only in its construction — “The mouthfeel of this piece in lines like ‘nightshade-wound chrysanthemum’ is exquisite, and it uses its repetitions and its breaks from verse to solid effect,” Horizon said — but also in its storytelling: “It tells a riveting tale, recasting the story of Luna and Nightmare Moon as a love story,” Present Perfect said.  “The characters and plot fit the poem form well, and I love how strong the sense of yearning and desire is.”

But what impressed us all the most was the mastery of language on display.  “The words are obviously carefully chosen,” Present Perfect said.  “There’s some great wordplay, like the ‘here/hear’ in the otherwise identical couplet that appears in the description.”  Chris found another example to praise: “I think the moment I realized I was in for a treat was the couplet ‘To slither, snake, in shadow form, / To recollect, inveigle—mourn—’,” he said.  “I’m on board with anyone who can use ‘inveigle‘ in a coherent sentence, especially while holding to the rhythm of the line.”  And Horizon agreed: “This is a piece which isn’t afraid to deploy ten-dollar words with rapier precision.  Seriously, look up ‘Lacuna’ the first time the poem uses it: this isn’t just a pet name for Luna, it’s a direct statement on the relationship.”

Despite the deep linguistic delving, though, “this remains shockingly readable as it flows through a story of need and betrayal and loss,” as Horizon put it.  “Nightmare Moon’s anguish is palpable, even as the piece makes very clear who the villain is here.”  And that makes this remarkable on another level, Chris said: “The content is a fresh twist on the oldest story in the fandom, which is increasingly hard to do six seasons in … but, as Corejo shows here, by no means impossible.” That it managed to do so while impressing even our poetry connoisseurs was what sealed this story’s feature.  “I will admit to being a giant poetry grouch who clings to strict ideas about rhyme and rhythm and imagery,” AugieDog said.  “To find a piece like this one that picks a meter and keeps to it, that picks a rhyme scheme and keeps to it, that paints some wonderful pictures with words and sounds and all, that’s the sort of thing that makes me very, very happy.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Corejo discusses rabbit errors, fluff-ectomies, and the fine line between hugboxers and skimmers.
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Wellspring’s “Arthurian—The Black King”

18 Friday Mar 2016

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You always go back to the classics — and with today’s story, you can return to a pony take on one of the great classics of English literature.

arthurianArthurian—The Black King
[Dark] [Romance] [Tragedy] • 30,305 words

“Those of us who have a general overview and knowledge of King Sombra regard him to be a despotic autocrat, a power-hungry potentate and a vicious oppressor. And, even if this condemnation is justified, we may perhaps not have the right reason for this attribution. This is due to the fact that before King Sombra turned to the tyrant we all know him to be, he was the greatest knight of the Crystal Empire.”

—Sir Sombra de Onyx, Foreword to the Third Edition

FROM THE CURATORS: “This is a very ambitious piece,” Present Perfect said — as its roots show.  “The author lists Le Morte D’Arthur and Ivanhoe as the primary inspirations,” Chris said, “and Wellspring does a commendable job capturing both the literary style and the feeling of history-by-way-of-myth which permeates Le Morte D’Arthur.  A capital-r Romance in the truest sense, this is a story about character archetypes presented in a tell-heavy style.”  It is also, in Horizon’s words, “metal as heck.  From Sombra’s world-serpent origin to the way the sphinx is killed, this continuously finds new ways to crank up the level of epic.”

And while The Black King can be an easy story to bounce off of — “I can appreciate what the author’s doing here, but I can’t read it,” AugieDog said — it richly rewards readers willing to engage with it.  “The style is obtuse, and all the grammatical errors don’t help the story at all,” Soge said, “but this story sold me on its metafiction aspects levels so hard that by the end I went from ‘Wellspring needs a editor’ to ‘Boy, Equestrian grammar sure has changed’. The afterwords are tone perfect, the historical and plot inaccuracies feel legitimate, and the footnotes complement the text beautifully.”  Present Perfect had similar praise for those margin elements: “There’s so much unexpected humor with the historical inaccuracies in the footnotes. And there’s historical poems in them! They do quite a lot more work than one expects footnotes to. … I’ve also never praised an afterword before, which should say enough by itself.”

What locked in The Black King’s feature, though, was that its unusual style was wrapped around solid storytelling.  “Sombra’s backstory is really powerful,” Present Perfect said, while Soge praised its worldbuilding more broadly: “The story carries some fascinating ideas about Sombra, the Crystal Kingdom, and historical Equestria as a whole. I love how Sombra’s tragic flaws are mostly positive attributes, which makes the inevitable conclusion all the stronger.”  It all added up to a package worth the time spent in adjusting to its presentation.  “The more I think about it, the more impressive I find this story to be,” Chris said. “The Black King captured my imagination in a way few fanfics do, and I feel like that’s the definition of something worth spotlighting.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Wellspring discusses showy footnotes, writing archetypically, and the evil of Cervantes.
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AcreuBall’s “Distance to be Covered”

26 Friday Feb 2016

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The way that today’s story examines the challenges of a long-distance relationship is something to write home about.

distance-to-be-coveredDistance To Be Covered
[Romance] • 9,017 words

Dash had been accepted into the Wonderbolts and was going to be living in Cloudsdale. Twilight was going to be spending much of her time in Canterlot as a new princess of Equestria. Both of their lives would be changing forever, and in very different ways, but Dash wasn’t worried. Their relationship could handle the distance, and though they were both moving away from Ponyville, the town and all their friends were still going to be there, the same as they always had been.

She knew everything was going to be all right. They were going to be able to deal with it.  She knew it was going to be fine — she was just having a hard time getting herself to feel like it was going to be.

FROM THE CURATORS: One of the many reasons this feature delighted us was how endlessly quotable its prose was.  Early lines like this one impressed Chris: “She knew just the pegasus to get that packing done — the fastest pegasus that had probably even ever existed — and that pegasus was named Future Dash. Present Dash was already flying out the door.”  “There’s some nice characterization humor here,” Chris said, “and that really buoys the whole fic.”  Closer to the end was the line that sealed Horizon’s approval: “”I’m scared, okay?’ Rainbow said, and the two of them were silent as they lay in the vast, empty sky, the aurora glimmering above them.'”  “It’s a little thing,” Horizon said, “but reinforcing the theme of the conversation with the tone of the setting is exactly the sort of attention to detail and craft that we should be rewarding.”

Little touches like those rewarded us throughout our reading, but the big things — such as the portrayal of the central TwiDash relationship — were equally powerful.  “It sold the relationship well in medias res,” Present Perfect said, and Horizon agreed: “There’s a lot of solid work here to non-intrusively set up the relationship and the characterization, as well as scenes directly showing us why the couple works together.”  For his part, Chris was impressed by “how little of the romance was gratuitous, by which I mean ‘irrelevant to the plot’ … and that is exactly what I want to see from a shipping story.”

Add all those qualities to a story that’s “wonderfully paced and closes strong,” as Horizon said, and it’s easy to see why this one was a winner.  Present Perfect expanded on that: “The ending is intense and romantic, taking Rainbow’s character heavily into account to make an emotional statement while also giving us a look at TwiDash that’s just a little outside the norm.”

Read on for our author interview, in which AcreuBall discusses uncanny Balls, Wolverine neighbors, and personal headcanon cement.
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Ara’s “Fluttershy’s Secret Kissing Story”

12 Friday Feb 2016

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Today’s story offers us some vivid characterization straight from the horse’s mouth.

fluttershys-secretFluttershy’s Secret Kissing Story
[Romance] [Slice of Life] • 11,064 words

Fluttershy remembers the kisses she’d shared over her lifetime, reflecting on the different circumstances and how she’d grown as a pony.

FROM THE CURATORS: “This is an experience,” Present Perfect warned us along with his nomination. And, indeed, this was one of those rare features where our fellow curators’ reactions were nearly as engrossing as the story itself.  Horizon flailed for adjectives: “Visceral, tactile, disquieting, and memorable as all get out.”  Chris tempered his dislike with respect for the story’s effectiveness: “In many places, it’s disgusting, and occasionally deeply disturbing … and yet, I can’t argue with either those things’ effectiveness, nor their appropriateness in context.”  AugieDog, meanwhile, assigned it his first-ever top score: “This story hit me right between the eyes, drilled through my head, and popped out the other side like a perfect, dew-bedecked daisy.”

What made the story so effective?  “It takes all the tropes and trappings of a romance story and uses them powerfully to create something very different,” Horizon said.  “It does supremely awkward things and then doesn’t shrink from the consequences.”  But it’s not just a shock story, as Present Perfect noted: “It exists in this weird Schrödingerian realm of not making sense and making perfect sense all at once.  The writing is that weird, awkwardly discordant style you get from trollfics, but it’s all straightforward and serious.”  And if you take the story seriously, it will reward you with unexpected depth, he added: “The strangeness of the kissing ties together not only Fluttershy’s character, but some major elements from the show.”

It was ultimately that depth that most impressed us.  “The prose — such as the passage from Chapter 1 about the way kissing changed as she grew into adolescence — shows a level of insight that I find deeply appealing,” Chris said.  “There are a lot of powerful moments in this story.”  And underneath it all, as AugieDog noted, was a core earnestness that was most powerful of all: “I support wholeheartedly any story that shows how even the most damaged of us can maybe turn out all right.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Ara discusses spurious inspirations, soonish horses, and self-imposed sticky conceits.

SleepIsforTheWeak’s “Just Give Me a Reason”

29 Friday Jan 2016

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There’s a very simple reason to read today’s story: it’s an intimate and moving portrayal of a troubled relationship.

just-give-me-a-reasonJust Give Me a Reason
[Romance] [Sad] [Slice of Life] • 3,653 words
[NOTE: This story contains sexual themes.]

She waited for Rarity’s face to bloom into softness, the way it always did when Rainbow made some big romantic gesture like this. Rarity’s face stayed impassive. But she smiled. It was a smile that was reserved and slightly tired—barely genuine. The warmth in it was quiet, self-contained.

And that’s when Rainbow’s entire world came crashing down.

She did not need her any longer.

FROM THE CURATORS: “Call me a sucker for tragic romance,” Present Perfect said as his vote spurred this story to its feature, but this story was richly rewarding to more than just genre fans.  “Even though this one had my guts twisting almost from the get-go, I loved it,” Chris said.  “It uses the relationship that’s falling apart as an opportunity to explore its characters, and to really get inside Rainbow’s head in particular, all while offering authentic and rewarding hope.”  He wasn’t the only curator commenting on authenticity.  “As someone going through an amicable divorce, I can confirm that this is heart-rendingly authentic to the way that two people treat each other when they care for each other but are no longer quite in love,” Horizon said.

Those two people — or, rather, ponies — were central to what made this story exemplary.  “The author sells me on the romantic relationship right from the start,” AugieDog said. “Of course, ‘romantic’ is probably the wrong word, but the portrait of the two characters in the dust and ashes stage of things is just marvelously well done.”  Present Perfect also agreed on the excellent character portrayals.  “What really makes this work is you can’t tell this story with two other characters,” he said.  “More to the point, this is very obviously a Rainbow Dash who’s been Rarity’s marefriend for three years. She can read Rarity like a book; she understands nuances of decor! She can, in a perfectly matter-of-fact manner, talk about her feelings. It’s one of the most believable ‘the ship already happened’ stories I’ve ever read.”

That sense of realism drew us all in, and the end result was a story that was gripping and powerful from start to finish.  “This hooked me early, and my engagement extended straight through until the very end of the story,” Chris said.  “The very end of the story provided perhaps the most honest and believable reason for Rainbow Dash and Rarity to be in a long-term relationship I’ve ever seen, and managed to somehow be completely cynical and emotionally reaffirming at the same time.  No mean feat, that.”

Read on for our author interview, in which SleepIsforTheWeak discusses invincible bouncing, sweet torments, and the benefits of professional jealousy.
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MidnightDancer’s “Blankets”

08 Friday Jan 2016

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Today’s story reminds us that even loving spouses sometimes will make cold decisions.

blanketsBlankets
[Romance] [Slice of Life] • 2,556 words

Marriage is the hardest thing Carrot Cake has ever done, second only to being a father to his two foals.

Woken by a chill and finding himself quite bereft of blankets, he finds himself pondering the canyon that has appeared between he and his wife.

FROM THE CURATORS: As the description suggests, this is a story about relationship problems — but it’s full of the sort of realism and nuance that elevate the premise from angst to art.  “I always enjoy it when writers take a situation from the show and apply real-life psychology to it: how would someone really react to this situation, and how might that reaction change the character’s outlook on life?” AugieDog said.  “Even better, we then get the character reacting to that first reaction and deciding it was the wrong thing to do.”

Several of us noted the deft way which Blankets dug back through both the Cakes’ troubled relationship and the incident that caused the rift.  “Even when we discover what happened, there’s never any attempt by the author to act like this single thing is what’s pushing them apart,” Chris said.  “Instead, this is a story about all the little barbs, all the slightly-too-guarded conversations, all the individually unimportant but oh-so-crucial-in-the-heat-of-the-moment battles which drive people apart, told with beautiful metaphors and no small amount of self-awareness.”  And that storytelling finesse even won over our doubters.  “It started out feeling like a generic midlife crisis story, but once the curtain pulled back on the original source of their rift, that did wonders for my engagement,” Horizon said.  “The central conflict and the realistic approach to that growing divide of paranoia are exemplary, and I really appreciate the way that the resolution turned on trust rather than on the truth.”

But ultimately, Blankets’ strength comes from its uncompromising look at the truth behind a marriage in crisis — and that wouldn’t have been nearly as powerful if it hadn’t gotten so effectively inside its characters’ heads.  “Mr. Cake makes no bones about what’s happened,” Present Perfect said. “He’s laying his soul bare, not asking for pity. If anything, this story reveals that he does truly understand his wife in the way only someone who’s been with another for a long time can — we see him seeing himself through her eyes.”

Read on for our author interview, in which MidnightDancer discusses dark days, basic morals, and that old time-thief Soap.
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Grand_Moff_Pony’s “Ciphers”

01 Friday Jan 2016

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There’s no secret to the quality of today’s story — just a gripping look at the secrets of a mare facing a life-changing decision.

ciphersCiphers
[Drama] [Romance] [Slice of Life] [Tragedy] • 6,110 words

Untold luxury and wealth. A place in high society. A life full of the finer things. All this and more await Fleur, but at what cost?

Now, Fleur must decide: Is love worth nothing, or is it a secret worthy of sacrifice? Can she be the mare she is and the mare she has to be?

A cipher, after all, can be anything — or nothing at all.

FROM THE CURATORS: This story came to us via multiple recommendations in our story suggestion thread — and it was easy to see why.  “The writing is gorgeous,” Chris said.  “Pleasantly full of detail without falling into overlong rambling, it nicely mirrored the opulence of the setting.”  Horizon similarly praised the way the story grounded itself in detail: “All the little motions and mementos bring Fleur to life.”

That writing was in service of a story far afield from the show’s usual fare.  “This is a great piece, full of drama and romance and upper-class tragedy,” Present Perfect said.  “We get Fleur on the eve of an arranged marriage, barely pulling off the adoring trophy wife routine while desperately trying to hang onto the last vestiges of the life that once made her happy.”  We found Grand_Moff_Pony’s treatment of that premise unexpectedly captivating.  “Stories about the tribulations of the exceedingly wealthy have never really resonated with me … so it’s doubly impressive that I enjoyed it so much,” Chris said. “She’s faced with a choice where there’s no good answer, but her decision makes her feel more real — more flawed — than having her either bet on love or try to make a ‘noble sacrifice’ would have.”

It wasn’t just Fleur’s characterization that we appreciated.  “Even though her lover spends most of the story offscreen, their relationship is vibrant and moving,” Horizon said, and Present Perfect agreed: “She’s characterized well, and she’s got really good chemistry with the OC brought in to be her paramour.”  And the setting itself came to life in much the same manner.  “What really struck me was the sense of ‘negative space’ in the story, the feeling of emptiness, isolation, and echoing stillness — I don’t think Fleur moves more than a handful of steps throughout the entire piece,” AugieDog said.  “It surrounds her and her mementos in a very effective way.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Grand_Moff_Pony discusses cardboard starships, on-screen level-ups, and over 9000 moments.
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IceOfWaterflock’s “The Mare Who Fell In Love With The Wind”

07 Friday Aug 2015

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Although today’s story is a tragedy, you can fall in love with it without any regrets.

mare-who-fellThe Mare Who Fell In Love With The Wind
[Romance] [Tragedy] • 3,806 words

Once upon a time, a Princess was alone in her crystal palace, and she sang to the wind in her sorrow. But when the wind is a Windigo, the wind sings back.

FROM THE CURATORS: The first thing you’ll notice about this multi-part fic is its small size — six chapters in less than 4,000 words — and that was one of the factors that turned our heads.  “This story shows how to do more with less,” Chris said. “It’s a bare, almost spartan storytelling style, and I thought it did a great job of showing the strengths of that type of writing.”  Horizon agreed: “IceOfWaterflock shows a deft touch in keeping us flipping the page.  This is exceptionally economical storytelling.”

What that storytelling skill presented was, in JohnPerry’s words, “a genuinely engaging story with a classic star-crossed lovers premise and a great fairy tale feel in places.”  While — as Present Perfect noted — “the fairy tale structure really helps it along,” it went beyond those roots.  Chris’ nomination offered an idea of the breadth it was able to pack in: “Even as it builds a fairytale romance, spins a history of the Crystal Empire, and speculates on the nature of windigoes, this slim fic doesn’t resort to clunky exposition or asides.”

The core fairy tale, meanwhile, inspired several comparisons to the classics.  “This is the Brothers Grimm version of the Fall of the Crystal Empire,” Horizon said.  “It’s almost ‘Biblical Monsters‘ dark — and it’s made a hell of a lot darker with a little fridge thought about what canon shows us in modern times — but it carries its own weight.”  AugieDog went even further back: “With so much of the show being inspired by Greek myth, I’m surprised to think that this might be the first fanfic I’ve seen that really visits that same well.  And that it’s sort of a pony version of ‘Iphigenia in Aulis‘ just makes me grin.”

Read on for our author interview, in which IceOfWaterflock discusses therapeutic stories, immortal robots, and Bermuda Triangle dragons.
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Sharp Spark’s “A Stallion for the Time Being”

10 Friday Jul 2015

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Today’s story just might transform you into a fan of unusual romance.

stallion-for-timeA Stallion For The Time Being
[Romance] [Comedy] • 21,026 words

Minuette is determined to have a nice date with a nice stallion, no matter what that takes.

Twilight Sparkle just wants her to stop wreaking havoc on the time-space continuum.

Things get complicated.

FROM THE CURATORS: “This is the sort of story that could only come out of fanfiction,” Horizon observed as this story was collecting a rare unanimous approval from our team. “The complete absence of non-brain-damaged stallions in Ponyville creates a sequence of events which leads to Twilight Sparkle turning herself into a stallion for a date.  Yes, it’s a textbook Rule 63 romance … but it’s a magnificent mix of earnest and ridiculous; both tones are applied with precision, and the two never get in each other’s way.”

R63 romances have a reputation for shallow fanservice, but there was so much else to like that this drew us all in — even as we disagreed on its strongest features. “The comedy was, for me, the real highlight here … even as it shifts more toward romance in the second half, it never abandons its essential goofiness,” Chris said, and AugieDog seconded that: “Fun all around.”  Present Perfect appreciated the story’s subtle profundity: “I love the ‘what is Twilight the princess of?’ joke, and I adore how much this ends up being about her wrestling with princesshood,” he said.  Horizon loved the prose: “Little touches like the internal monologue over pronouns are highlights of great voicing throughout.”  And, as JohnPerry pointed out, the central story was excellently executed as well.  “Brilliant comedy, with some gentle prods at shipping tropes, and a heartfelt, realized romance to boot,” he said. “This is a story that excels at both its tagged genres.”

All this from a story that started life as a whimsical exploration of the title’s double meaning. “The origin of the title (explained in the Author’s Note in the epilogue) is astounding, and just goes to show what you can accomplish if you’re willing to look at things in a novel light,” Present Perfect said.  We were all impressed by that, but Chris put it most eloquently: “It’s almost the opposite of episode 100.  Rather than take something that, at its best, is heartfelt, and make a joke of it, A Stallion for the Time Being takes a joke of a premise, and makes something heartfelt from that.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Sharp Spark discusses pulp changelings, Type II fun, and President Lyndon B. Johnson.
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Fahrenheit’s “Daring Do(esn’t Need a Special Somepony)”

29 Friday May 2015

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Today’s story offers a sweet deal: a two-for-one sale on action and comedy, with free shipping (while supplies last).

daring-doesntDaring Do(esn’t Need A Special Somepony)
[Romance] [Comedy] [Adventure] • 9,340 words

Hearts and Hooves Day is a sorry excuse for a holiday. Maybe it’s the fact that most of her dates tend to get eaten by manticores, but Daring Do has long since given up on risen above any longing for romance.

But that doesn’t mean she’s not 100% okay with slinking into the Sugar Cloud Confectionery to hit up their sale on rainbow truffles. Hay no. This is her most important quest of the year.

Hopefully it doesn’t end up like last Hearts and Hooves Day.

Stupid Wonderbolt.

FROM THE CURATORS: “I’m not usually much for shipping stories,” Chris said with typical understatement in his nomination, “so when one catches my fancy my thoughts turn to the RCL.” As you might expect, a story good enough to win fans across genre lines sailed through to an easy feature, but we were all surprised at how many things this did right.

“This is basically the literary equivalent of a romance film that incorporates some action sub-plot to keep male audiences from dismissing it as a chick flick.  And by god, does it work.  I haven’t had this much fun reading a story in a while,” JohnPerry said.  Present Perfect, meanwhile, lauded the comedy.  “This was hilarious from the outset,” he said.  “The scene with Daring pulling a wagon and Fleetfoot chucking cushions at guardsponies perfectly sums up just what a ride this is.  It’s ridiculous how well this story works.”  And Chris found the emotions authentic: “What ultimately sold me on this story was the ending.  The way that infatuation, real life, and that ineffable combination of complacency, passivity, and fear-induced laziness combine in that exchange brought everything together for me.”

What it added up to was clear: a strong story from a multi-talented author.  “That Fahrenheit is as skilled with action as with comedy is not something you see every day,” Present Perfect said, while Horizon summed it up: “This story makes a lot of promises, and fulfills them all.  Great characters, some hearty laughs, an unexpected and unexpectedly touching moral … there’s something in this story for everyone.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Fahrenheit discusses meteorological heroes, defenestrated stereotypes, and midnight matchmaking.
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